GE ANALYSIS MEASUREMENTS AND THEIR CORRELATIONS WITH EGG QUALITY TRAITS AND EGG CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT EGGSHELL PATTERNS OF JAPANESE QUAIL

Abstract

The present study was carried out to identify the effect of colour and pattern varieties of Japanese quail eggshell on image analysis measurements for the eggshell, egg quality traits and chemical composition of whole egg components, as well as the correlations between image analysis measurements for eggshell with egg quality traits. Image analysis parameters of eggshell, egg quality traits, chemical composition for egg components were evaluated at 19 weeks of age for a total 744 Japanese quail eggs collected from 186 identified females classified by their egg shell imprints according to egg shell color and pattern into five groups of egg-type [1st group: white eggshell (Non-pigmented), 2nd group: greyish white egg shell pigmented with small black pigments spots (Black-spotted), 3rd group: small black pin dots on greyish brown shell background (Pin dotted), 4th group: slightly blue pigments (Sandy gray), 5th group: brown eggshell with heavily dark pigmentation (Heavily dark)]. There are significant differences (P≤0.05) between studied egg shell patterns for image analysis measurements. Sandy gray eggs had significantly the highest values, while white egg had the lowest values for all studied external egg quality traits comparing with other egg groups. No significant influence of egg shell patterns on chemical composition analysis for egg components for different gropes except moisture and fat % in white eggs (71.3 and 9.7% respectively) which were significantly lower compared to other egg shell groups. Significant correlations, whether positive or negative were found between image analysis measurements of eggshell and some egg quality traits for different studied groups which can be used in future studies.